just prior to 1700 -- William Beamer settled in the
future Branchville. The place was originally named Brantown.

before the Am. Rev. -- William Alexander, Earl of Stirling,
acquires the ore-bearing lands around Franklin

early 1800s -- the town expaned with the building of mills and
mercantile establishments.

1810 -- Franklin deposits found to be very valuable. Robert
Ogden purchases land in the area from Lord Stirling.

1821 -- Samuel Bishop named it, perhaps for the branching out of roads and
streams in the area. The name Branchville comes from a reference to the "main
branch of Paulins Kill." At that time it was part of Frankford Township.
Branchville covered 1,000 acres then compared to today's 320 acres.

late 1850s -- the Sussex Railroad extended a railway line to
Branchville. Later Branchville was the northern end of the Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western Railroad. Borden's had a creamery in Branchville.

1871 -- population doubles to 600.

Here were the Sussex Hotel and Hotel Branchville. The latter
was found along Broad Street near the corner of Wantage Avenue. The hotel was
demolished and the present post office building replaced it.

At one time the area was widely known as a summer resort. Here
was a region of large lakes west of Branchville: Culvers Lake,
Lake Owassa, Lake Kemah, and Kittatinny Lakes. The most famous of
the lake resorts was Culvermere, one of the largest summer hotels
in northern New Jersey. It was built in 1892.

Open from June 15 to September 15, at one time J. Ed. Pittinger was the
proprietor of the Culvermere. At that time it accommodated 125 guests at rates
of from $2 to $3 per day (or $10 to $20 per week). The resort was located
within 300 yards of Culver's Lake at an elevation of 900 feet that permitted a
view of Culver's Gap in the Blue Mountains. The hotel was the largest in Sussex
County offering spacious verandas, large airy rooms, and sun parlor. It
provided its guests such activities as walking, fishing, boating, billiards, and
tennis. (source: http://www.cruciformed.com/enj/horse/horse.html)

1955 -- rains associated with a hurricane badly damaged
Branchville. The Branchville Dam, holding the water of the Electric Pond,
was breached and Newton Avenue was partially washed away.

1962 -- Borden's creamery ceased operation and was subsequently
torn down after the main boiler exploded.

OLD TRIP REPORTS

Professor Oliver P. Medsger told of the first Branchville
Nature Outing which he organized in May, 1925. He told of the
interesting plants shown by Mrs. Stephen R. Smith who joined the
Torrey Club in 1925 and arranged for the accommodations of the
Club on these nature outings. Since the death of Mr. Smith in
1937, Mrs. Smith has continued the arrangements of the comfort of
those attending the conference.

Medsger, (ed: a teacher of astronomy at Lincoln High School, Jersey City, New
Jersey), was a winner of the John Burroughs award for his 1933
book Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, published by the Wayne company.

Medsger and Gleason were leaders at the first annual nature
conference.

------------------------------------------------------------------

May 18-20, 1928
Led by Mr. and Mrs. William Gavin Taylor

The inn is situated in the largest group of indigenous white
pine in New Jersey. Being rich in limestone, it has a large
variety of spring flowers, including the yellow lady's slipper,
Cypripedium parviflorum; the rock clematis, Clematis
verticillaris; and the green orchis, Coeloglossum bracteatum. The
limestone ferns are abundant, including walking leaf, maidenhair
spleenwort, wall rue, purple cliff brake, and fragile bladder
fern.

Pine Hill is located on an outcrop of limestone and many of
the mosses of this region are quite naturally those that thrive
on a limestone habitat. The most conspicuous masses of moss are
the Anomodons, golden green or yellow green in color.

In the Springdale swamp an interesting zoning of plants was
noted. Going down a hill covered with sugar maples and oaks the
edge of the swamp was found to be lined with black ash, red maple,
and various shrubs. Globe flower (Trollius laxus) was abundant,
with bastard toad flax (Commandra umbellata) also in blossom and
many plants of the grass of Parnassus (Parnassia caroliniana).
Following the maples and ashes was a fringe of dwarf birch (Betula
pumila) and willows, the hoary willow (Salix candida) and the
beaked will (S rostrata) were common and with them an apparent
hybrid. In some places tamaracks (Larix laracina) grew in this
zone. The more open central part of the swamp was filled with
shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa) which makes a level-topped
growth of considerable extent. Plants of buckbean (Menyanthes
trifoliata) were in blossom among the cinquefoil stems and near
the edge of the swamp the smaller yellow of lady's slipper (Cypripedium
parviflorum) was not uncommon. The larger species, or variety
pubescens) was found in blossom on the slope above the swamp. As
in other years, the large clump of yellow lady's slipper just
back of the inn was in prime condition, this year with seventeen
blossoms.

the limestone ridge on which the hotel stands with its ledges
which shelter rock ferns;
the high sandstone escarpment to the eastward
intervening gorge with its perpetually cool boulder slopes

Moody's Rock (see below), a somewhat inaccessible retreat among the eroded limestones just northwest of Springdale. This overhanging ledge
borders on a bog, somewhat similar to the extensive bog-center of
Muckshaw Swamp, lying a short distance to the southwest. Here
were pitcher plants, cranberries, Eriophorum viridi-carinatu, the
curious native buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata var minor), dwarf
birch (Betula pumila), bog willow (Salix pedicellaris var
hypoglauca), and numerous plants of Carex seorsa, one of the most
infrequent members of the Stellulatae group.

A small pond, lying between the bog and Springdale Road,
filled with the golden spikes of Orontium, showed also small
patches of the yellow Cow-lily (Mymphozanthus advena), and its
shores were lined by clumps of Carex diandra, a northern species
of wet calcareous habitat. Orontinum itself shows the most
amazing diversity of habitat; being equally at home in the acidic
pine barrens of New Jersey, the dense swamps of Georgia, in
shallow streams of the Cumberland Mountains, and in the marly
ponds of western New Jersey. Toward its existence the enormously
deep roots are probably the most important contributor.

With the owner's permission, we later visited the extensive
Muckshaw Swamp, with a few clumps of the showy ladies' slipper (Cypripedium
reginae) still to be seen, and an abundance of yellow ladies'
slippers, both large and an small-flowered. Flowers of the small
variety, confined to wet swampy places, were occasionally found
to have a delicious fragrance. At the margin of one of the
numerous embayments we saw again , as we had found it in the
previous year, the splendid stand of Goldie's Fern, and an the
luxuriant plants representing a natural hybrid between this
species and an the marginal shield fern.

George T. Hastings wrote that the area about The Pines is a
fine example of what protection can do for our wild flowers. I
first went to this spot in 1921, later I had the pleasure of
assisting Dr. Gleason with the first Torrey Club trip on May 14-16,
1925. I have observed the gradual increase of a number of wild
species of which the yellow lady's slipper is an example.

In 1944 the Branchville Nature Conference was held at the
Haltere Hotel on Culvers Lake. Had to turn people away because of
a lack of space.

Footnotes of a sort:

Moody's Rock

"My friends and myself decided to go "caving" around Muckshaw Pond and the
surrounding area. Armed with maps and flashlights, we walked for hours along
many rocky ridges and found various crevices and small holes but no large caves.
Then we came across a huge rock which actually causes a great bend in the road
around the outcropping on the side of the hill.

"We walked down it and I looked at the map and realized that this was "Moody's
Rock" and the site of Moody's Cave. We climbed down and at the base of the rock
is a hole about 3 feet wide by 3 feet tall which leads into a room the size of a
Jeep Cherokee. It was overgrown and covered with spider webs with very large
spiders (like four-inchers). "

"At 23.9 miles (on Route 206 heading south) is the junction with a dirt road.
463 Right on this road to the CAREY FARMHOUSE, 0.6 miles (R), where directions
will be given to MOODY'S ROCK (accessible on foot), the hiding place of James (Bonnel)
Moody, leader of a Tory band that plundered the countryside during the
Revolution. From a "plain, contented farmer" Moody rose by a series of bold
exploits to a lieutenancy in the British army. Many of his ventures failed
because of betrayal by his aides, but he did succeed in releasing several
captured Tories from Newton jail, terrifying the inhabitants by simulating an
Indian raid, and intercepting important dispatches to Washington. His failures
included attempts to kidnap Governor Livingston, rob the archives of Congress,
and blow up the powder magazine at Succasunna. In 1783, while a guest of Sir
Henry Clinton in London, Moody wrote the story of his adventures. The Tory
chief's hiding place was beneath a huge ledge that hangs 25 feet out from the
face of a low cliff to form an inverted L. The tip of the overhanging ledge is
about 25 feet above the ground. Earlier visitors have painted their marks on the
smooth rock or hacked their initials into it. Muckshaw Swamp, which offered
additional protection to Moody, is now almost dry at this spot." Tradition says
that Moody was captured in the American Ranks near Morristown and hung as a spy.

I live in Frankford, in Sussex County. I live right down the street from an
old abandoned hotel/resort that used to be called the Culvermere Hotel and then
later changed to The Spa, until it closed down in the late 70's, early 80's. It
opened up in the 40's. Right now it is half collapsed but still contains parts
of the old hotel and a few cabins from when it was also a camp. A basketball
court, in grown tennis courts, and the lobby are still in pretty good condition.
(Message: 12 Jul 2001, To: weirdnjclub@yahoogroups.com; From: Jay Radicals.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/weirdnjclub/message/2755?source=1)

The Culvermere was the largest of the hotels built around Culver Lake in
Frankford Township. It was built in the mid1890 by D. H. Fowler who had
extensive real estate experience in Brooklyn. There was a 1901 addition to the
hotle. By 1921, the hotel had new owners and could handle more than 400
guests

THE PINES--A. N. Roe; accommodates 60; rates, July 1 to Labor Day, $8 to $11
per week; other months, $8; located in a grove of white pines; boats on three
lakes close to the house; beautiful scenery; electric light; baths; home-grown
table supplies; opens May 1.
(From the collection of Bill Doyle. Mountain and Lake RESORTS. http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/before/dlw-r1913.html)

Sources:

Odell, L. Brevoort, "Branchville, 1821-1971: A
Digest of its History and Environs."